WTA Rankings: How Elena Rybakina can overtake Aryna Sabalenka at No 1 after French Open
Aryna Sabalenka has spent 84 consecutive weeks at No 1 in the WTA Rankings, but she could lose top spot after the French Open, although it will be no walk in the park for Elena Rybakina.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Sabalenka started her second stint at the top on 21 October 2024 when she overtook Iga Swiatek and she has been largely untouchable since then, building leads of over 3,000 points over her rivals.
But that lead has been reduced to 1,647 in the official rankings after she failed to enjoy deep runs at the Madrid Open and Italian Open, allowing Rybakina to chip away at her advantage.
Sabalenka sits on 9,960 points while Rybakina has 8,313 points and they are followed by Swiatek (7,273), Coco Gauff (6,749), Jessica Pegula (6,268), Amanda Anisimova (5,958), Elina Svitolina (4,315), Mirra Andreeva (4,181), Victoria Mboko (3,710) and Karolina Muchova (3,318).
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But that is before their points from the 2025 French Open come off, resulting in a significant reduction of the Belarusian’s lead while Gauff will slump a few spots as she is the defending champion.
With the WTA using a rolling 52-week, cumulative system, players drop points they earned from the corresponding event/period 12 months ago at the start of the current edition and they then earn points based on their round-by-round progression.
WTA Live Rankings After Points Drop
1. Aryna Sabalenka – 8,670
2. Elena Rybakina – 8,083
3. Iga Swiatek – 6,503
4. Jessica Pegula – 6,056
5. Amanda Anisimova – 5,728
6. Coco Gauff – 4,759
7. Elina Svitolina – 3,895
8. Mirra Andreeva – 3,751
9. Victoria Mboko – 3,550
10. Karolina Muchova – 3,318
Sabalenka, of course, finished runner-up to Gauff at Roland Garros in 2025 so she will drop 1,300 points while Rybakina will drop 240 points as she lost in the fourth round against Swiatek.
Gauff, meanwhile, will drop 2,000 points and slip to No 6 while the rest of the top 10 is unchanged.
How Rybakina Can Overtake Sabalenka…
The gap between the top two is 587 points before they play their first-round matches at Roland Garros and Rybakina has an opportunity to overtake Sabalenka after the clay-court Grand Slam and the Kazakh star will need a deep run.
Reigning Australian Open champion Rybakina needs to reach at least the semi-final in Paris to stand any chance of becoming world No 1 for the first time in her career and then hope Sabalenka loses before the fourth round.
Should Sabalenka make it to the round of 16, then Rybakina must reach the final to take over at the top of the rankings, and if the Belarusian reaches the semi-final, then only a title run will be good enough to become No 1.
Swiatek, meanwhile, has no chance of overtaking Rybakina while Pegula could replace the Pole at No 3 with Anisimova not too far away from her fellow American. Gauff, though, will need to reach the final to return to the top five.
